Churchill?s coal resources in East Kalimantan jump to 1.4b tons

UK mining firm Churchill Mining said on Friday the JORC compliant resource at its East Kutai Coal Project (EKCP) in East Kalimantan has reached 1.412 billion tons, a significant increase from the initial full year 2008 target of 500 million tons (Mt).

An updated assessment indicated that the concession has 118 mt of measured resource (up from 44Mt), 322Mt of indicated resource up from 73Mt) and 972Mt of inferred resource up from 133Mt), the company said in statement.

The company has a minimum coal reserve target of 150Mt and is aiming to bring the EKCP into production by the end of 2009.

The quality of the coal deposit is to date defined as medium calorific with low sulphur and ash content, it added.

Churchill?s Managing Director Paul Mazak said: "SMG Consultants have done a superb job modelling huge amounts of data from the field. Such significant resource numbers reaffirm the Company's confidence in the shear potential size of this project and with only 20% of the coal target area drilled to date, there is still a massive amount of upside at EKCP. Further drilling and exploration work should move much of the current resource into higher level categories and toward the minimum 150mt mining reserve that the Company is targeting." (denny)